Flying Lab Software has announced that the much anticipated Pirates of the Burning Sea will raise anchor and set sail on January 22, 2008.

Here it is: January 22nd, 2008!

That’s our launch date. For Real.

It’s been a very long trip. We started this project in the fall of 2002, so by the time we launch, Pirates of the Burning Sea will have been in development for more than five years. Even our closed beta program has been running since December of 2005, so that’s coming up on its two-year anniversary.

During that time we have grown from a handful of people to more than seventy full-time staff. The scale of the project has grown as well. When we started, there weren’t even going to be human avatars! Ports were just a menu where you clicked options. The whole game was much, much smaller and a lot less interesting.

At this point, we have a big fat slab of game: a giant, player-driven economy; incredible ship combat; swashbuckling swordfighting; a thousand missions; eighty towns; a conquerable world; and more adventure than we ever expected. Behind the scenes, we are working really hard to fix bugs, adjust gameplay, balance and tune the numbers, and generally get the game ready for launch. There’s still a ton of work to do and we’re hard at it.

Read the full announcement here.

Let me be the first to say... YARRRRRRRR!

This is fantastic news. I've been waiting for the game for SO long... like many of you, and to get a solid date after years (literally) of developer polishing and tweaking, I'm so happy to see some light at the end of this tunnel. I think I'll have to book some time off work around the end of January.

Awesome. Can't wait guys.

excellent news!!

been following this game for a long time.  can't wait.

Great, along last to have a date! 

Just to bad u cant use the hollydays around christmas to plyay it!

This is one of the few MMO's I have been excited about in a long time. I defy anyone to download the stress test from Fileplanet and not be amazed with what Flying labs has done. This game is going to have a huge player base.

I agree with you, its great!!

        Great news                looking forward to set sail and meet all of u who have been waiting for PotBS as much as i have.....

cya all

I forget...is this the second or third try at a launch date?

Ah well...even though I won't be playing, I wish the good people at FLS much luck in the coming year.  Here's hoping your launch date isn't too close to WAR or AoC....and that your treasure chests stay full.

Afaik this is the second actual date announced, but between dates we've had devs say stuff like "fall 2007" and "before Christmas" so it seems like more.  Hopefully this date sticks though.

Excellent news dudes and congratulations on your achievements Flying Labs. I hope PotBS is extremely successful. But that doesn't matter as I'll play anyway.

So stoked for this game!

I am very interested in the game, however, I wish they had launched this autumn. Jan 2008 is really the latest possible date! With all the other big MMOs releasing close, it would have been better to release it now, but apparently that wasnt in their abilities. I am a bit worried now. Competition doesnt sleep, but I hope the originality of the genre and other things make it good.

I definitely give it a try.

Originally posted by Elikal

I am very interested in the game, however, I wish they had launched this autumn. Jan 2008 is really the latest possible date! With all the other big MMOs releasing close, it would have been better to release it now, but apparently that wasnt in their abilities. I am a bit worried now. Competition doesnt sleep, but I hope the originality of the genre and other things make it good.

I definitely give it a try.

You know I would put PotBS up against any of the so-called WoW killers coming down the pike.  Flying labs knows they have a winner on their hands, and they are polishing the hell out of an already fun smooth and stable game.  3:00 am and a queue of over 200 in the stress test and it has been like that all day, Funcom and Mythic should be concerned about this one.

Woot can't wait!!!  Hope the community is as mature when the first day arrives, the only downside to a game like this is it will draw in allot of buttpirates.

Okay was confused as MMORPG home page release dates had it releasing 1/22/07.   One of the first games released 08 sounds good to me.

I wouldn't get your hearts set on January 22, 2008 for a release date.  If FLS has been consistent with anything, it has been pushing back the release of their game.  Or... is this SOE pushing back the release date?  Either way...  this game is long overdue.  Every month it gets pushed back is one month of revenue they aren't getting.  And missing the Xmas sales...  that's not a good sign either.

Originally posted by Dreneth

I wouldn't get your hearts set on January 22, 2008 for a release date.  If FLS has been consistent with anything, it has been pushing back the release of their game.  Or... is this SOE pushing back the release date?  Either way...  this game is long overdue.  Every month it gets pushed back is one month of revenue they aren't getting.  And missing the Xmas sales...  that's not a good sign either.

Prepare for your avatar to become hotter as many of us will flame that as a coherent decision in trying to fault FLS at being un-honest to it's fans.

Your directly insulting the DEV team at FLS saying that they are not been truthful with us. Everything FLS and the team has done up till this point has been being honest with us. Your issues are unwelcomed here as we know the facts about FLS.

Pushing back a game release so it is done right is a respectful thing to do, you wouldn't release an unfinished game now would you?

SOE has nothing to do with the development of the game. SOE is only doing distribution and the subscriptions.

Originally posted by bezado

Prepare for your avatar to become hotter as many of us will flame that as a coherent decision in trying to fault FLS at being un-honest to it's fans.

Your directly insulting the DEV team at FLS saying that they are not been truthful with us. Everything FLS and the team has done up till this point has been being honest with us. Your issues are unwelcomed here as we know the facts about FLS.

Pushing back a game release so it is done right is a respectful thing to do, you wouldn't release an unfinished game now would you?

SOE has nothing to do with the development of the game. SOE is only doing distribution and the subscriptions.

I am aware of the fact that SOE had nothing to do with development (yet... *snicker*) of PotBS.  But it was announced along with the deal with SOE that the release date was being pushed back (from June-ish of this year if memory serves) to allow the ramp up with SOE and their retail distro.  Now, it's being pushed again.  I did not say anything that wasn't true...  they have in fact changed the release date multiple times.

As for "directly insulting the dev team", that is simply not true.  I never said the game was crap...  I stated that the game is overdue, and there have been multiple release delays.  If anything, I blame the suits at FLS for making bad decisions.  You don't disagree, and that's fine, but I never said FLS was dishonest...  I simply implied that they are having a hard time delivering.

And here's a thought...  if SOE is handling distribution, it's not that strange that I would mention them as a possible reason for the delay of DISTRIBUTION.   lol

It's unfortunate that people who have been waiting so long for this game have to wait even longer now.  It certainly doesn't speak much for FLS's PR... at least not in my book.

Opinions may vary.

PS-

Originally posted by bezado 

Prepare for your avatar to become hotter

 That made me laugh out loud...  hehehe